On Fennel"And as it mantling passes round,With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrownedAre in its waters steeped and drowned,And give a bitter taste. Above the lowly plants it towers,The fennel, with its yellow flowers,And in an earlier age than oursWas gifted with the wondrous powers,Lost vision to restore. It gave new strength, and fearless mood;And gladiators, fierce and rude,Mingled it in their daily food;And he who battled and subdued,A wreath of fennel wore. "Excerpted from "The Goblet of Life" (ll. 11-25) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1842

Fennel, native to Southern Europe and parts of Asia, grows merrily and effortlessly anywhere it can find sun and mediocre soil. It has been naturalized around the world so succesfully that the US and Australia consider it a foreign invasive plant. Nevertheless, it is a plant worthy of a spot in any Druid's herb garden.All parts of this plant may be used; leaves, seeds, and bulb. It should be noted that not all types of fennel produce the engorged leaf base know as the bulb; Florence fennel is the most prone to bulbing, though other varieties can be encouraged to do it as well. One must prevent the flower stalks from forming for the plant to create the bulb. However, there are benefits to allowing the plant to go to flower. Besides the showy, branched, yellow blooms; many beneficial insects and butterfly larvea are attracted to the flower stalks. Planted next to roses, fennel will draw the aphids to itself letting your roses go on about their business and it has enough foliage that the aphids and other hungry insects will hardly inpede its growth at all. Fennel is an important food source for Swallowtail butterflies; state butterfly in 7 states and state insect in 2 states.

It is embarassingly easy to grow fennel. Seeds sown in early Spring will produce healthy, flowering plants the first year or established plants can be put in and will naturalize within a year or two. Fennel propogates through seeds and if allowed to go to seed it will be prolific! Unless you want a yard full of fennel, (it will shade out many other things as it can grow up to 3'), I recommend preventing the flower stalks from forming at all, or cut the flowers to enjoy indoors. Cut fennel will stay lovely in a vase for over a week. In order to take advantage of the full range of fennel benefits, I allow several plants to go to seed every year, while snipping the flower stalks of others to enjoy the bulb (cooked or raw) and the continuous feathery greenery. Do be responsible when growing fennel and do not let it get away from the constraints of your garden.

Anethole, the substance that gives fennel its flavor and aroma, is a documented antispasmatic. Fennel has been used medicinally to relieve asthma, as a diuretic, laxative, expectorant, and as a cure for several intestinal and stomach woes. Tea made from the bruised seeds has been recommended to help stimulate the flow of milk, but there have been extremely rare cases of a severe, sometimes fatal reaction. It is common throughout India to chew fennel seeds after a meal to sweeten one's breath. While an essential oil of fennel could couse dermitis in sensitive people, a steam of fennel can be very useful for asthma, croup, and bronchitis.Fennel holds a prominent place in our mythological history. According to Hesiod, it was a hollow fennel stalk that Iapetus' son, Prometheus, used to conceal and carry the coal when bringing fire to mankind. In Works and Days he writes, "He (Zeus) hid fire; but that noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk..." and in Theogeny, "But the son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel-stalk." Sir James Frazer relates that during rituals in honor of Adonis, 'gardens' for the god were planted in pots filled with soil in which were forced seeds of fennel, lettuce, wheat, and flowers. These gardens were allowed to wilt and die and were taken, along with the image of Adonis, to be thrown into the sea.

Pliny describes fennel as sacred to Bacchus and attributes an astounding 22 medicinal properties to the plant. One use that may be of modern interest was as a diet aid. Fennel was thought to assuage hunger pains (used in the Medieval era on days of fasting) and I have found it included in many modern diet/fasting teas. One of the more facsinating of Pliny's medicinal claims for fennel was that snakes were wont to rub against fennel to improve or restore their eyesight. One wonders exactly how he divined this. Belief in the ocularly strengthening properties of the plant endured through the middle ages. And one finds an echo of that belief in the Longfellow verse quoted above. It is perhaps a stretch to find a connection between the Greek understanding of fennel as a tool for bringing illumination and the belief of it as an eyesight restorative; however in the realm of UPG, one is allowed just such leeway.

Perhaps is was the conviction that fennel could improve vision that led to its being used in charms against witchcraft. In Anglo-Saxon lands it was most commonly paired with St. John's Wort, gathered at Midsummer, and hung in the eaves to dry and to protect the house's inhabitants. It would seem that this custom persisted into much later days; "on the eve of this saint (St. John's Day = Midsummer), as well as upon that of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, every man's door was shaded with green birch, long fennel, Saint John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and the like, ornamented with garlands of beautiful flowers" (Strutt, p. 284). In Creswick's Victorian telling of the tale of Robin Hood, Allan-a-Dale's hard-won bride, Fennel, is left to guard and heal the wounded greenwood men while the larger party accompanies Robin. Here we may see a remnant of the belief in fennel as a curative and power of protection to be found in the popular consciousness, for the name of Allen's love is not given in any of the ballads or poems of Robin Hood collected by Child..

Fennel is often included among the nine sacred herbs of the Anglo-Saxons; however there are myriad lists of sacred herbs and trees for most Indo-European cultures and rarely do the many lists agree. In his work Night Battles, Carlo Ginzburg descibes numerous folk accounts from the 16th century of fighting off evil witches using fennel stalks (while the malevolent witches were armed with sorghum stalks). Ginzburg's research centers on the Friuli region-a facsinating area bordered by Venice to the West, the Adriatic Sea to the South, Austria on the North, and Slovenia on the East. Once occupied by Celtic people and highly influced by Germanic traditions, one finds quite a mixture of Indo-European customs and beliefs; and fennel figures prominently.

Hermetic magic finds fennel useful in purification practices. The 19th century translation of the Clavicula Salomonis offers specific instructions for making a Sprinkler, used in asperging or purifying with water. One must gather the fennel and other herbs during the hour of Mercury while the moon is waxing and tie their stems with a cord spun by a young maiden. After one makes certain inscriptions upon the handle one may use the "...Sprinkler whenever it is necessary, and know that wheresoever thou shalt sprinkle this Water, it will chase away all Phantoms and they shall be unable to hinder or annoy any." (Mathers, p. 103)Modern Pagans may develop all manner of possible uses of fennel in current practice. A stalk of fennel dipped in Holy water (gathered from 3 natural sources) can be used for a simple Purification. Additionally, adding the used aspering stalk to the Fire as part of establishing the Triple Center may well add some oomph to a Greek or Norse ritual (not to imply that other Hearth Cultures can't appreciate fennel just as well). Perhaps an infusion or decoction of fennel (if the oil is found to be problematic)could be effective when used to annoint ritual participants or before divinatory work. In my experience fennel is excessively easy to work with and offers many rewards in return for a sunny spot in the yard.